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What do you do when your temperature goes Up, Up,..?
Transplants | Last Active: Nov 11, 2019 | Replies (16)Comment receiving replies
With the arrival of flu season, and the fast approaching holidays and festivities, I think that it is a good time to re-vist and re-activate the question: What do you do when your temperature goes up?
I have the most wonderful PCP who is always willing to see me when I need to see him for a fever, flu like symptoms, etc. He has even told me to come during the quiet uncrowded times to avoid germs. He is the one who discovered my elevated liver function results nearly 20 years ago, and who sent me to a gastroenterologist. So when I need a doctor 'during office hours' he is there for me.
However, it is the after hours that cause me worry. Too many of the admitting staff and even medical support staff at urgent treatment and ER do not understand that as a transplant recipient, I cannot/will not be shrugged off if my temperature or symptoms do not meet the 'normal' criteria. Things have improved locally as training and awareness of organ transplantation is becoming more widespread. Each time I have to do this, the on duty doctor tells me that I did the right thing to come. So ...
What do you do? What will you do? -if you develop symptoms during the holidays - What if you are traveling? What if it is after hours? What are your thoughts? What would you share with others?
Replies to "With the arrival of flu season, and the fast approaching holidays and festivities, I think that..."
@rosemarya the ER doctors treat me with priority as soon as I convey to them that I'm a transplant recipient at any hospital in Ontario. Im not sure about elsewhere in Canada or out of country as I'm not planning anything until fall next year to go south to the islands.
@rosemarya I have the advantage of being only @55 miles from Mass General, my transplant hospital. My PCP agrees that I should go there if possible, When I had a 103 or 104 fever 2 years ago (I thought 103, but my husband says 104. He’s probably right) my husband immediately called MGH and they said to bring me right down. That was when I had Legionnaire’s. I didn’t actually have any symptoms other than the temperature. I often tend to be asymptotic.
When we consider traveling I look into where the closest hospital that does transplants, preferably liver, is. @danab, it sounds as if you plan to do the same. We have not had any foreign travel since my transplant, the furthest we have gone is Hawaii. I would love to go to the Caribbean again but I would check with a doctor at MGH who is an infectious disease doctor and she specializes in foreign travel, and making sure you have whatever shots you might need. I think most European countries have good medical care so I think they would be OK. We would like to go to Italy again, maybe Ireland since that is my heritage, and there are other countries I would love to go to before we are too old to travel.
If traveling make sure you know where the transplant hospital(sl are, just in case, so you don’t need to waste time. I would imagine that those hospitals would definitely give you priority. Based on my local hospital, I don’t know how other hospitals would do though.
JK
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Well usually for me i live about 70 miles from my Mayo Hospital and if i start a fever i have always went there. Usually it hasn't been urgent enough to warrant going to a closer hospital er. But also i also have my Prior cardiologist that i see a few times a year just for that reason. If an emergency did happen he is closer and can treat me to a point where i can get transferred to Mayo. I will admit i also have a pcp and he is learning about the difference that us transplant patients deal with and works well with Mayo doctors. Also all my non Mayo Drs work well with Mayo so i think im pretty lucky. I do wonder tho as i hope to travel someday how to handle that situation. I did once ask the question about foreign travel since i have a dream to visit Israel someday and the tour guide i follow online i asked him and he said yes in tel Aviv has a hospital that also does Heart transplants and is world renound as a Heart Hospital so i guess the big thing is do some research ahead of time to be ready if something does happen. I also like the Mayo Patient portal which has everything available to show other drs if needed. I have many times shown drs reports and test completed just from the portal on my phone.